- April 5, 2021
- ,
- ,Garden Tips
If you’ve never taken a bite out of a smooth, juicy, ripe, aromatic tomato picked right from the vine–you’re seriously missing out! Once you do, you’ll never be able to think about tomatoes the same again and may even become part of the coveted club of those who refuse to eat them out of season. Seriously, there’s more of us than you might think! But, lucky for you, growing tomatoes from seed is actually pretty easy, and they’re very productive plants under the proper care and conditions.
The simple nature of growing tomatoes from seed isn’t the only benefit either. While you can buy tomato seedlings from most garden centers, there is something immensely satisfying about witnessing the whole process from start to finish. It’s also more affordable and provides the opportunity to choose from hundreds of different varieties of tomato seeds. If you’ve never grown anything from seed before, it can seem a little daunting. But, with the right tools and a few simple guidelines, you’ll be experiencing that first blissful bite out of a sun-warmed tomato grown in your own garden before you know it.
What You’ll Need To Grow Your Own Tomatoes From Seed
If this is the first time you are trying to grow your own tomatoes from seed (or any veggies, for that matter), there are a few things you’ll need to stock up on before you get started:
- Tomato seeds
- Seed-starting pots
- High-quality seed-starting mix
- Lighting
- Fertilizer
- A heat mat (optional)
- An oscillating fan (optional)
Since tomatoes are warm-season crops, a heat mat can promote rapid germination, but if you can’t find one, a warm place in your house will do just fine as well! The oscillating fan is also not totally necessary, but it can help you grow stronger plants. The gentle breeze provided by a fan simulates the wind outdoors, in turn triggering a hormone release in your little tomato babies, which helps them build thicker stems. The end result is a more durable seedling.
How To Choose Your Seeds
Deciding what varieties of tomatoes you want to enjoy is one of the most exciting parts of learning how to grow them from seed. Tomato seeds are broken down into a couple of different categories, and understanding the differences will help you pick the suitable variety for you and your garden.
One consideration is how much space you have in your garden, as tomatoes’ growth habits break down into two categories:
Determinate Tomatoes: These varieties are great for smaller spaces like container gardens because they only grow to about two to three feet. Once you see blossoms at the tips of their branches, you know they are finished growing for the season. Their fruit all ripens simultaneously, making them an excellent option for those of you who are interested in growing your tomatoes from seed for the purpose of canning.
Indeterminate Tomatoes: This variety, on the other hand, will just keep on growing until a hard frost takes them out. They can grow up to 12 feet (yikes!) but usually average out at about six feet. Either way, they’re definitely not ideal if you’re just looking to grow some cherry tomatoes on your apartment balcony. However, they are ideal if you are hoping to have a continuous harvest throughout the growing season. You just want to make sure you have the space to accommodate them first!
Other aspects to consider when choosing your tomato seeds are the kind of flavor and texture you are looking for, how long your growing season is, and what type of disease resistance they have.
Seed Starting 101
You can start growing your own tomatoes from seed in just about any kind of container – so long as they are clean. If you’re looking for a neat DIY project or just want to avoid using plastic, there are plenty of different ways to create your own seed starting pots out of everything from newspaper to egg cartons.
When to Start Your Tomato Seeds
Growing tomatoes from seed should start about six to eight weeks before you intend to transplant them, which should be about a week after the risk of frost has passed. Generally, here in North Dakota, that is around the end of May. Starting your seeds too early can result in leggy seedlings, but starting them too late will give them less time outdoors to produce fruit.
How to Plant Your Tomato Seeds
- Moisten your high-quality seed starting mix before you start filling your containers or cell packs. This will help make sure there is an even moisture level throughout when you go to plant your seeds.
- Plant your seeds at the right depth–usually about a quarter of an inch deep. You can do this by simply poking a small hole in your growing medium with your finger, drop 2-3 seeds in each container, and then cover them lightly back up with potting mix. If you’re planting more than just tomatoes, or growing more than one variety of tomatoes, make sure to label what seed is planted in which container!
- Moisten the soil a little further. It doesn’t need to be soaked (a plant mister or even just a bit of a dribble over each container will suffice), but you do want the top layer of soil to be relatively moist.
- Place your trays in a warm spot in your home or on top of a heat mat (if you have one). Your seeds don’t actually need light quite yet, just moist soil and a warm bed to lie in.
- Once you start to see your seeds sprout up out of the soil, it’s time for light!
Grow, Babies, Grow!
It is ideal to figure out a set-up where you can have your seedlings under grow lights, but if you are growing them on a windowsill, make sure to rotate them every day so that they grow upright instead of reaching for the sunshine. The latter will result in leggy, weak stemmed seedlings.
Maintain moist soil, and if you decided to pick up that oscillating fan, now is the time you could start running it! Not only will it help your plants grow stronger stems, but the air circulation also helps to reduce the risk of disease. If you did opt to grow under lights, make sure you raise them up as the plants grow (they should sit just a few inches above the tops of the seedlings).
Thinning Your Tomato Seedlings
This is a bit of a difficult time for many gardeners – deciding which of your precious tomato babies get to stay and who needs to go. Since you planted a few seeds in each pot, there comes a time when you have to make sure only one is actually growing in that pot. Resist the temptation to let all of them live on, as you’ll just end up with a larger number of very weak plants. Rather, select the strongest seedling and snip the rest off at the soil line with a pair of clean scissors or a sharp knife.
Fertilizing and Repotting Your Tomato Seedlings
By the time you have selected your strongest tomato seedlings, you can start keeping an eye out for their ‘true leaves.’ The first two are considered ‘seed leaves,’ but the ones that come after that are ‘true leaves.’ Once they grow these, you can apply a water-soluble fertilizer mixed at half the recommended rate.
If your tomato seedlings outgrow their pots before it’s time to transplant them into the garden, you might need to repot them. Allowing them to become pot-bound could stunt their growth. Not to worry, repotting is a fairly simple process, and if you need to do it, it’s great news because it means those little tomato seeds you started are growing into healthy, strong plants!
The Final Steps: Hardening and Transplanting Your Tomato Seedlings
Congratulations! You have successfully made it through the first stage of growing tomatoes from seed. Once the final frost date has passed, it’s time to start hardening off your seedlings in preparation for transplant day. This basically means that you need to get them used to being outdoors, but slowly! Start by bringing them outside and leaving them in the shade for a few hours. Continue to bring them back indoors overnight and then back outside during the day, gradually introducing them to more sun each day. They should be ready to transplant in about a week.
Whether you are planting them in the ground or in a container, make sure you select a sunny spot to plant your tomatoes in the garden and be prepared to protect them with some sort of covering if a late frost is expected.
